Today we went to Mount Gerizim to visit the Samaritan village there. This is only one of two in the world, the other is in Tel Aviv. Before we got to the village, we took a service to the checkpoint at which the point the driver had to stop and turn around. Me and Stephen at this point got out. The reason why the driver couldn't go any further was because Israel see the Samaritans as Jews so the village is an area C so Palestinians are not allowed to go through the checkpoint. Has we got to the checkpoint the Soldier asked to see our passports and then asked where we were after which he said "have a nice day". So the soldiers area friendly too!! At the village we followed the signs to the Museum to find it was close. A local woman gave us directions to what we would call "tourist information". We each bought a guide book for 10NIS and then got directions to the summit of Mount Gerizim. We followed what we thought we were the right signs and a local man stopped us and told us we were heading to the Army base and it was the next left. Has we were reaching the summit the same guy headed up the same path to take us around. The site has a lock on it and he is incharge of the key and gives tours. We had a tour which we then found out was 25NIS each...good marketing trick. It seems expensive but when £1= 5.5NIS it was around £5 so not too bad.
The site has a church which was built 1000years ago and a mosque 900 years ago and houses around them. However they are now ruins.
View of the ruins, Mosque in the top corner and the church is the circular feature in the centre
Outside the church and mosque area is a circular area (which we didn't go to) which is used by the Samaritans for prayers when they all gather for a pilgrimage. After the tour we walked back down through the village and went back through the checkpoint with no problems. As there were no services around we decided to walk down until we took the wrong path which was a dead end (near the city of Nablus) so when we next saw a service we took one!
View of Nablus on the walk down
Once back we headed to the New campus where we had falafel which I now have a liking too! Once Stephen had finish some work we went to the English lesson I was invited too. It was good fun and the girls that invited me were very happy to see me. We played "Consequences" which tested my spellings as I had to get them right as what I wrote someone in the class would have to read. We then played "Werewolf" and "Charades". All the games were to encourage the students to speak English.
Whilst Stephen was working I sent some electronic postcards and then we got the service back to the old campus. Whilst Stephen was teaching an admin lesson I decided to head on back to his flat, stopped off for some chocolate on route and then finished my postcards and update this.
Currently Stephen is having a snooze whilst his clothes are being washed. The washing machine is rather strange. It is attached to a tap which leaks so a bucket has to be put underneath to catch the drips. The pipe which lets the water out has to be put into the bath as it has no where else to go. When the tap is switched on if the pressure is too great then the pipe can come off the bath and cause a flood in the bathroom. Also he has to make sure the drum is closed properly so his clothes don't fall out!
I will stop rambling now! More tomorrow
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